


Memories

by Latent



Category: Team Fortress 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 19:28:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8460163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Latent/pseuds/Latent
Summary: Scout remembers things that the others have forgotten. It gets depressing.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I WAS IN A MOOD.

# Angst

It didn't seem like much, but God did he run from it.  
  
He couldn't see anymore. He couldn't hear. In fact, Scout couldn't even feel his own legs moving. He began running around 2:00 AM, long before the sun started to rise. Now it was high up over his head, its heat threatening to kill. Scout's entire body ached. He couldn't remember the last time he'd taken a breath. He finally collapsed to his knees, arms and legs shaking, lungs full of choking dust and sand. How long had he been running? He couldn't tell. Scout took unsteady breaths, and sat down, head slumped and arms gripping his knees. Why was he such an idiot? He pulled this exact thing once already, back at the snowycoast. He should have learned not to panic and run off like this. Voices kept telling him that his team wouldn't care enough to go after him this time. He'd die in this unforgiving wasteland, without anyone caring. They'd probably throw a party once word got back that he didn't survive.. Scout tore off his hat and headset, then threw threm clumsily to the side. He then tugged aggressively on the tags around his neck. He ignored the red mark that had started to form, and only tugged harder.  
  
Scout decided that he wouldn't mind if he died there. It wouldn't burden anyone with the task of moving his body. He pushed his heels into the dirt, digging up small stones that he started throwing in random directions. Scout felt guilty now, taking off without an explanation. He lowered his eyes and tried to convince himself that he didn't owe them one, but that thought was rapidly wiped away by the familiar feeling of his systems shutting down. The heat was too much for him to handle, and if he didn't get out of the sun soon, he'd probably fry. Despite that being what he sorta wanted, Scout crawled towards a medium sized, abandoned animal den and curled up in the sand. He was flexible enough to fit between the two rocks that formed the den, and it hid him pretty well.  
  
Scout felt liquid running down his face, and was slightly relieved to see that it was tears rather than blood. He lay there, flooded by thought, memories whirling through his head. Scout could do nothing but stare at the vast desert in shock as thousands of faces, names, smiles and jokes continued to rush through him.  
  
That morning, at 1:58 AM, the team was taking a short break. They were crowded into the resupply, chatting quietly to each other while fixing up wounds or restocking their ammo. The team was only awake at that hour because a particular match happened to last way longer than anyone expected. Scout was perched on the bench in the corner by the door, redoing the bandages on his hands and wrists like usual. Only, this time was different. Scout happened to get his hand caught in his dogtags as he was bending over. He took the time to examine those tags for what felt like the first time. On them were symbols, and a name. HIS name. After reading it, Scout was attacked by an army of forgotten things that pushed him into shock. Scout was frozen there, eyes wide as he remembered.... everything. He remembered his seventh birthday. He remembered his mother and the apartment they all shared in Boston. He remembered meeting the rest of the team on that fateful day. He remembered all of the laughs they shared, the games they played... He remembered magic... when did that happen?  
  
Scout snapped back to reality. The sun had set, so he assumed that he fell asleep. Scout rolled out of the den and abruptly sat up, hands on his face. Magic. Earlier he had remembered magic. Where did it come from again? Wasn't there a wizard? A tall, ghost wizard. Murray... Mason... Merasmus. His name was Merasmus. Scout remembered Merasmus. What else was there? There was a mountain. Pyro and Soldier were there too. They fought something... something big. Furry. Bears. He remembered fighting bears in Sibera. Soldier was covered in something. There was a plane too. The bears were babies... someone big fought the mother. Heavy. Heavy fought the mother. Scout remembered that.  
  
Scout stood up and brushed the dirt and sand from his legs. He glanced at his hat and headset on the ground, then picked them up. He didn't put them back on though, and just let them hang loose in his hands.  
  
What else could he remember?  
  
He remembered some nicknames he was called a long time ago. Scoot, Scooter... Things like that. He also remembered metal. Metal? Walking, moving metal. Tanks. Tanks were there too. He remembered robots, money, and tanks.  
  
Scout started walking in the direction he came from.  
  
He remembered... his teammates. He remembered their names. Dell, Jane, Mundy, Misha. Misha. Heavy was Misha, and he had three sisters. Right, they visited those sisters in Sibera. What were their names? Zhanna, Bronislava, Yana. Soldier was in love with one of them.... Zhanna? Scout remembered that it was Zhanna. He continued to remember his teammates. Sniper was the one who taught him how to shoot a bow. Pyro was the one who taught him how to start a fire with almost no resources. Engie tried explaining machines. Scout remembered that it didn't end well. He remembered Spy. Spy... who was Spy? Scout could remember that both of them were important parts of his early life, but it hurt his head to think anymore about it. Scout then thought about the time when he and Spy were arrested together and nearly hung in Teufort. Scout remembered Teufort. Is that where they were? Teufort, New Mexico? New Mexico... He remembered where they were.  
  
Scout didn't notice the tears forming in his eyes.  
  
He remembered their employers. He remembered pushing them to Hell after Soldier made a claim that neither of them were actually dead yet. Soldier was... Jane. Jane Doe. He was Merasmus' roommate. Merasmus hated him ironically and Soldier still thought of him as a friend. Scout started to remember all kinds of smaller things. He remembered smaller things too, like him and Pyro sliding into the kitchen in their socks and air-guitaring at 3:00 AM. He remembered Engie bringing him fishing on the lake outside of one of their bases. It was a ritual to do so every time they were there. He... remembered calling him that. Engie. No one called him that anymore. They called him 'The Engineer.'  
  
Scout didn't notice the tears streaming down his face, or that he had broken out in a sprint.  
  
He began remembering everything, from when he sat on the top of Sniper's van to watch the sunset, to when he and BLU Medic... BLU.. Scout realized that he didn't want to fight the BLUs. He woke up yesterday morning wanting to see their blood spilled on the ground, but now he was feeling like... that wasn't the case anymore. Scout thought about when they stopped fighting. They put their weapons away and just... lived. They enjoyed the company of each other. They played games and did normal stuff. They didn't kill, they didn't hate... What happened to that?  
  
Scout thought harder.  
  
There was an order. A threat. They didn't like that the teams stopped fighting.... Who was the they? Mann Co. The Administrator didn't like that BLU and RED stopped fighting, and Scout remembered it. Men came that day, with weird tools. They did something to their respawn, but no one knew what. Then they killed them. They slaughtered them. After popping back in the respawn room, no one remembered it. Not even Scout. All they did after was run out with weapons raised, ready to fight.  
  
Scout closed his eyes tightly. They had taken their memories.  
  
He made it back to base at 4:00 AM. He had been gone an entire day, and the others were already asleep. Scout stood in silence for a while, staring at nothing in particular for what felt like hours. He finally made his decision, and then began the journey to the basement. He took the first gun he saw, and entered the respawn room.  
  
One shot, and he still had all of his memories.  
  
Two shots, same thing.  
  
Why wouldn't the universe just allow him to forget? What had he done to deserve all of these good memories? These things were lost in time, forgotten by everyone else. Scout would be tormented by them if no one else knew what he knew. They wouldn't believe him if he TRIED to explain.  
  
He continued deeper in to the basement until he came upon a slightly rusted metal door. Scout struggled with the handle for a bit, then slowly pushed it open. The room smelled like mothballs and dirt, and was barely tall enough for him to walk in. Scout felt for a lightswitch, and flicked it on. In front of him was that cured machine. The horrible atrocity, a mechanical nightmare. The large device was littered with buttons and switches, each labelled with a tiny plaque. Scout found the one he needed, and let out a sigh.  
  
So this was it, right?  
  
Scout dragged the gun out of his pocket with one hand and rested the other on one of the switches. The switch was labelled “Respawn.” Scout smiled the melancholy kind of smile, and flipped the switch to the OFF position. An alarm sounded, and Scout started to cry. He was going to miss this place. He was also going to miss those memories, but he knew the others wouldn't.

Engineer found the word “Scout” written on a class list hidden in a drawer one day and found it odd. After all, they never had a Scout class.  



End file.
